From Kinston, N.C., to Hackensack, N.J., Amazing Young People Are Providing Food-Filled Backpacks to Hundreds of Children in Their Communities—and Inspiring Others to Give

As a counselor at a summer program, Carly Sanderson, 16, listened in stunned silence as kids fretted about leaving, not because they'd miss their new friends but because of the bare cupboards that awaited them. "I had no idea," the junior at Bethel Christian Academy in Kinston, N.C., says, "that so many were hungry." The quietly determined daughter of a farmer, she decided to make a difference for needy students at Southeast Elementary School. Partnering with the Louisville, Ky., nonprofit Blessings in a Backpack (see box), she and a handful of volunteers pack 50 food-filled backpacks for kids to take home to their families every Friday. "We were struggling," says Michelle Moore, 33, a college student and mom of backpack recipient Tysheka, 8, and her three siblings (11, 4 and 10 months); Moore's husband, Antron, was laid off from his airline-parts plant job. "I thank God for [Carly]." Third grader Tysheka loves to share: "I like the juice and noodles in my backpack. I give some to my brothers and sisters." For Carly, that is reward enough. "I see the kids' faces when I pack each bag," she says. "And that keeps me going."

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People FIRST

HOW YOU CAN HELP

1. Donate a backpack. 2. Give just $80. That's enough to buy a year's worth of food for one child. 3. Get involved: Adopt a child or school in your hometown or help out these young people in the schools they serve. Go to blessingsinabackpack.org and follow the PEOPLE First buttons.

Filling Bellies, Boosting Spirits

ACROSS THE COUNTRY, THESE STUDENTS ARE FIGHTING HUNGER ONE BACKPACK AT A TIME

500 KIDS FED!

A Bat Mitzvah Project Grows

Sari Oppenheim | Miami

It started as a simple community-service project: As part of her bat mitzvah prep, Sari (at left) would start a Blessings program at Frances S. Tucker Elementary School, where 90 percent of kids get free or reduced lunch. Now in her third year, Sari and brother Michael, 18, along with pals Jennifer and Matthew Deutch and Ryan, Marlee and Mia Schatz, are still going strong. "There is nothing I've gone through that's close to what these kids go through," says Sari, 15, a 10th grader at Ransom Everglades School. "I feel good taking stress off these families."

FOUR SCHOOLS HELPED!

Dinner-Table Talk—and Action

Harrison & Jason Gordon | Hackensack, N.J.

Blessings board member Richard Gordon was talking about the charity's work over dinner last year when son Harrison, 16 (below right, with brother Jason, 11), decided Dad shouldn't go it alone. Since then the brothers have launched a district-wide program feeding 100 students. "These are the kids we see at the mall, play baseball with," says Harrison, who lobbies corporate sponsors for support and goes door-to-door for funds. "We can't stop doing this."

$10K RAISED!

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Aiden & Alex Kravitz | Westhampton Beach, N.Y.

When wealthy vacationers leave town at summer's end, "you could skateboard down Main Street," says Aiden Kravitz, 16 (above left), "and the poverty would shock you." He and his brother Alex, 15, held fund-raisers and will deliver backpacks to Westhampton Beach Elementary in early October. "When you're a kid," says Aiden, "you have the potential to be anybody."

People FIRST

HOW YOU CAN HELP

1. Donate a backpack. 2. Give just $80. That's enough to buy a year's worth of food for one child. 3. Get involved: Adopt a child or school in your hometown or help out these young people in the schools they serve. Go to blessingsinabackpack.org and follow the PEOPLE First buttons.